Final Fantasy XI had a lot of marketing as well. I've seen adds of FFXI before it was out and over the early duration of its existence if I recall. To be honest, I personally saw FFXI adds more frequently when it was fresh than I did FFXIV.

That being said, comparing those two in such a way is absolutely horrible. There are many players that would be interested in FFXIV at any point of its life, but weren't due to how much they invested in FFXI. If FFXI was after FFXIV, it'd have the same issue. That's because both RPG's are fundamentally aiming at the same market, so unless there's something REALLY wrong (like...what was the case with both MMO's early on in their life), the first one out have a massive advantage.

As for MMO's...one could technically count Mobius Final Fantasy...though that's a mobile-style RPG mixed with cards mixed with "Pay tons or you suck"...thus it doesn't even have a semblance of balance.